Monday, February 25, 2008

The Woman I Admire

My abuelita is the one on the left =)
My grandparents have always been the closest people to me aside from my parents. I truly believe that I carry many traits from my grandma. She is the most humble, loving, spiritual and strong minded woman I know. In my world, I would pretty much give up plans just to help her out for the day. Since I know I am fortunate enough to have grandparents that are alive, I think it is really important to spend as much time with them as possible. My grandma has lived a really tough life that I know deep down she tries to live through me. It brings her so much joy, just to see me be the happy woman I am today and go far in everything I achieve. She's always encouraged me to study, stand on my own 2 feet without the help of anyone else, live the moment but always looking ahead and never to regret anything. Just to learn from mistakes and make sure we don't let them happen again. She has always worked so hard, just to save every penny possible. Though there are times I have seen her on cloud nine dreaming about the smallest things but thats all they have been to her, "Dreams." I made a promise to myself that I was going to try my hardest to make her feel good, as the appreciated woman she is. She once told me a story about when she was a little girl in Cuba and how poor they lived. She was fascinated by ballet and always wanted a pair of ballerina slippers as a girl. In that time they were 10 cents but her father working in the fields couldn't buy them for her. He secretly tried saving a penny each month and in the end of the year surprised her and told her he was going to walk her to the store to buy them. When they got to the store, they only had a pair 2 sizes smaller but since she waited so long she wore them proud and acted as if everything was ok. She wore them until her big toe nail fell off. Till this day she laughs about it. Now I understood why she loved seeing me in ballet as a little girl. The joy on her face was always priceless. I took her last year shopping to buy a beautiful dress, we had lunch in Houstons and I took her to see the Nutcracker. Tears rolled down her face when she saw what I had planned for her. Sometimes its the smallest things that mean the most to people we love.

Recently my grandma was really down in the dumps and feeling lack of energy. She saw the doctor and he found that she had her main artery clogged. Now she is scheduled for surgery tomorrow and I am truly worried. This weekend was painful due to her asking me to sit with her to help her create her Will. It was hard but I'm honored I'm the one person she counts on to go over every detail and know I would make sure her funeral arrangements are paid for and no debt is left on anyone. Even though I pray that everything will come out ok my heart is hurting. She is my best friend and I really can't begin to think what life could ever be without her. She is in my prayers non stop and I decided to make her a gift for tomorrow. I worked on it all weekend. Its a family tree handmade and framed in a shadow box since it is 3D. I think she will love it.

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